Kasteelbier Donker

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Ingelmunster, Belgium

A 0.33L bottle from Alko shop. A fast disappearing pale brown head. Red brownish colour. Some syrup and maltiness in the taste. Also some oak in the taste(?). Hoppiness in the end.

Pours dark mohagony with a small head. The nose is chocolate and caramel. Comes across the palate as strong caramel, chocolate and even some plum.

Pours dark mohagony with a small head. Aroma is dark fruit and a bit of alcohol. Mouth feel is thick and smooth with little carbonation present. Flavor is much the same with a nice sweetness and a touch of sour fruit for good measure. Alcohol is well hidden.

Another Belgian offering, looking hale and flavorful even before I pop it open. Inside the bottle it is inscrutable, but outside in a glass this is an intense Belgian treat. The half centimeter light brown head gives way to a liver red body, which looks like pure cherry juice as it is poured into the glass. The aroma slithers its way into the nose, effecting it like an intoxicating candy. A general blanket of creamy sweetness envelopes your skull, and then pronounces its details: azuki beans and dark chocolate. It’s like a Japanese red velvet cake. The flavor is similarly sweet with redolent cherries, and includes the aroma’s distinguishing azuki bean thickness. Oh, and a generous dose of booze (but not too much.) I find it just right. Its intensely sweet, but stops short of popping your eyes out of their sockets with its dark cherry and azuki bean sugar prods. Really, it’s a diabetic romance. And to top it off, a sip of the Kasteelbier Donker leaves behind a truly beautiful thin clay-like film all over the glass. Maybe it’s dried sugar, but otherwise it looks like a nice beer glaze. In a way, I can see how the powerful flavors could be misconstrued as a botched effort that made a cough medicine beer, but for me, it leans over that fine line into brazen deliciousness.

bottle, 33cl, as kastel bruin. flavor dark fruits, very sweet, but very well balanced.

Bomber. Pours a very dark reddish-brown with a minuscule off-white head. Aroma is highly caramel malt with detectable chocolate and dark fruit (plum) notes. Taste is largely the same, though the beer is almost overwhelmingly sweet. Detectable alcohol burn on the finish. It’s not a bad beer by any stretch, but it’s a bit out of balance and the beer was almost impossible to finish.

Very dark maroon brown color. Shockingly small head and no carbonation. Either extremely high gravity or a stale beer. Chocolate and caramel smells. Malty sweet aroma and a smidge of hops to keep the sweetness from going too far. Sweet flavor goes too far as a taste though Plum sweet that dominates your tongue, way too much sugarness to enhoy much of this beer for an extended time. Palate is understandably thick. Yeah, its alcohol warm, but all the sugar and malt are too much. I will defer to much better balanced belguims.

Bottle. Brownish amber pour with a nice tan head. Aroma of brown sugar and maple syrup. Taste of plum, yeast and brown sugar with alcohol present. Very sticky and thick, with a lingering finish.